"Thomas Bloodworth Sir Thomas Bloodworth (sometimes spelled Bludworth) (baptised 13 February 1620 – 12 May 1682) was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1679. He was Lord Mayor of London from October 1665 to October 1666 and his inaction during the early stages of the Great Fire of London was widely criticized as one of the causes for the great extent of the damage to the city. Bloodworth was the son of Edward Blidward, yeoman of Heanor, Derbyshire and was baptised on 13 February 1620. In 1635, he was apprenticed to"
"were rented and the owners could not be found. Bloodworth is generally thought to have been appointed to the office of Lord Mayor as a yes man, rather than by possessing requisite capabilities for the job. He panicked when faced with a sudden emergency and, when pressed, made the oft-quoted remark, ""Pish! A woman could piss it out"", and left. After the City had been destroyed, Samuel Pepys looked back on the events and wrote in his diary on 7 September 1666: ""People do all the world over cry out of the simplicity [the stupidity] of my Lord Mayor in"
"the demolition to take place. Possibly, this was due to fear of complaints from the owners of the buildings which would be destroyed that such actions were unnecessary. According to Samuel Pepys' record of the events, he expressed a lack of concern that the fire would become dangerous, saying that ""a woman might piss it out,"" before returning to his home and going back to sleep. Over the next three days, the fire destroyed more than 75 percent of the city. Bloodworth was widely blamed. Bloodworth continued to sit in parliament and was one of the Court Assistants of the"
"going to bed with him robs him, and he ends up having to crawl out of the sewer.) The concept of strip-tease was also widely known, as can be seen in the reference to it in Thomas Otway's comedy ""The Soldier's Fortune"" (1681), where a character says: ""Be sure they be lewd, drunken, ""stripping"" whores"". Strip-tease became standard fare in the brothels of 18th century London, where the women, called 'posture girls', would strip naked on tables for popular entertainment. Strip-tease was also combined with music, as in the 1720 German translation of the French ""La Guerre D'Espagne"" (Cologne: Pierre"
"has learnt and obtained that language earlier in his or her's childhood, or more uncommonly, later on in life. Sleep-talking appears in Shakespeare's Macbeth, the famous sleepwalking scene. Lady Macbeth, in a ""slumbery agitation,"" is observed by a gentlewoman and doctor to walk in her sleep and wash her hands, and utter the famous line, ""Out, damned spot! out, I say!"" (Act 5, Scene 1) Sleep-talking also appears in ""The Childhood of King Erik Menved"", a 19th-century historical romance by Danish author Bernhard Severin Ingemann. In the story, a young girl named Aasé has the prophetic power of speaking the"
"of their employees, e.g. expecting them to do unpaid overtime. ""Take the piss"" may be a reference to a related (and dated) idiomatic expression, ""piss-proud"", which is a vulgar pun referring to the morning erections which happen when a man awakens at the end of a dream cycle (each about 90 minutes in length throughout the night) or may be caused by a full bladder pressing upon nerves that help affect erection. This could be considered a 'false' erection, as its origin is physiological not sexual, so in a metaphoric sense, then, someone who is ""piss-proud"" would suffer from false"
"its subject a bogus philanthropic scheme to bathe away the skin colour of Africans so that they ‘Go in a raven and come out a swan’. Visual depictions are little better. Isaac Cruikshank issued a caricature print in 1795 under the title ""Washing the Blackamoor White"". Satirising the mistress of the future George IV, it shows Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, sitting in an arm-chair while two ladies wash her face, which has the complexion of a mulatto. The Prince of Wales crouches at her feet, holding out a basin. In a speech bubble, he says: ""Another Scrub & then!!"
"City of London. He married secondly in 1679, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Bloodworth, who was Lord Mayor of London 1665-6; she was the widow of Sir John Jones of Fonmon Castle, Glamorgan. Being only 29 at the time of her second marriage, she was described as a 'brisk young widow' and there were some rumours about her. She was said to have a formidable temper: Jeffreys' family went in awe of her, and it was said she was the only person he was afraid of. A popular ballad joked that while St. George had killed a dragon and thus"
"for her ""vulgarity more than any thing else, she being extremely expert at uncommon oaths"". Drinking, intrinsically linked with prostitution, was also frowned on. Mrs William's entry of 1773 is full of remorse, her having returned home ""so intoxicated so as not to be able to stand, to the no small amusement of her neighbors"", and Miss Jenny Kirbeard had, in 1788, a ""violent attachment to drinking"". Not all entries were disapproving though; Mrs Harvey would, in 1793, ""often toss off a sparkling bumper,"" while remaining ""a lady of great sensibility ... not a little clever in the performance of"
"role at Shakespeare's Globe. In 2017, actress Tamsin Greig portrayed a female version of the character (renamed Malvolia) in Simon Godwin's revival of the play at the Royal National Theatre. Some Shakespearean scholars hypothesize that the character Malvolio was inspired by Puritan landowner Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby, who was involved in a well known court case against many of his Yorkshire neighbours in the 1600s. Hoby sued his neighbours when they came uninvited to his house, drank, played cards, mocked his religion, and threatened to rape his wife. Hoby won damages in the case, which may have influenced the scene"
"adults, e.g. ""weeing"", ""doing/having a wee-wee"", ""to tinkle"", ""go potty"". Other expressions include ""squirting"" and ""taking a leak"", and, predominantly by younger persons for outdoor female urination, ""popping a squat"", referring to the position many women adopt in such circumstances. National varieties of English show creativity. American English uses ""to whiz"". Australian English has coined ""I am off to take a Chinese singing lesson"", derived from the tinkling sound of urination against the China porcelain of a toilet bowl. British English uses ""going to see my aunt"", ""going to see a man about a dog"", ""to piddle"", ""to splash (one's)"
"about 1750 the word assumed more profane connotations. Johnson (1755) already calls it ""very vulgar"", and the original Oxford English Dictionary article of 1888 comments the word is ""now constantly in the mouths of the lowest classes, but by respectable people considered 'a horrid word', on par with obscene or profane language."" On the opening night of George Bernard Shaw's comedy ""Pygmalion"" in 1914, Mrs Patrick Campbell, in the role of Eliza Doolittle, created a sensation with the line ""Walk! Not bloody likely!"" and this led to a fad for using ""Pygmalion"" itself as a pseudo-oath, as in ""Not Pygmalion"
"for the similarly private rooms used for urination and defecation. By metonymy, it then came to refer directly to the fixtures in such rooms. At present, the word refers primarily to such fixtures and using ""toilet"" to refer to the room or activity (""use the toilet"") is somewhat blunt and may be considered indiscreet. It is, however, a useful term since it is quickly understood by English-speakers across the world, whereas more polite terms vary by region. ""Lavatory"" (from the Latin """", ""wash basin"" or ""washroom"") was common in the 19th century and is still broadly understood, although it is"
"""loutrá"", from the verb λούειν, ""loúein"", to bathe. The same root finds an even earlier attestation on Linear B tablets, in the name of the River Lousios (""bathing"" [river]), in Arcadia. Public baths are mentioned by the comedian Aristophanes as βαλανεία, ""balaneía"" (sing.: βαλανείον, ""balaneíon"", Latinized as ""balneum"", a ""balneary""). Throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the use of public baths declined gradually in the west, and private spaces were favoured, thus laying the foundations for the bathroom, as it was to become, in the 20th century. However, increased urbanisation led to the creation of more baths and wash"
"was imprisoned. London Monster The London Monster was the name given to an alleged attacker of women in London between 1788 and 1790. The attacker had a signature behaviour of piquerism, the pricking or stabbing of victims with a knife, pin or needle. The first reports of the Monster appeared in 1788. According to the victims (most of them from wealthier families), a large man had followed them, shouted obscenities and stabbed them in the buttocks. Some reports claimed an attacker had knives fastened to his knees. Other accounts reported that he would invite prospective victims to smell a fake"
"Tosspot Tosspot is a British English insult, used to refer to a stupid or contemptible person, or a drunkard. The word is of Middle English origin, and meant a person who drank heavily. Beer or ale was customarily served in ceramic pots, so a ""tosspot"" was a person who copiously 'tossed back' such pots of beer. The word ""tosspots"" appears in relation to drunkenness in the song which closes Shakespeare's ""Twelfth Night"". The morality play ""Like Will to Like"", by Shakespeare's contemporary Ulpian Fulwell, contains a character named Tom Tosspot, who remarks that Tosspot is also a character in the"
"Ploughing on Sunday ""Ploughing on Sunday"" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, ""Harmonium"" (1923). First published in 1919, it is now in the public domain. Interpretations of this poem have been both strictly metaphorical and philosophical. At one extreme is the suggestion that the poem is about the sexual act. The ""Oxford English Dictionary"" recognizes a sense in which ""to plough"" means to have sexual intercourse. Its most recent citation for this use is ""P. CAREY ""Jack Maggs"" (1998) xlvi. 167 Edward Constable had been..reamed, rogered, ploughed by Henry Phipps so [that] he could barely walk"
"boots"", as well as ""to have a slash"", which originates from the Scottish term for a large splash of liquid. One of the most common, albeit old-fashioned, euphemisms in British English is ""to spend a penny"", a reference to coin-operated pay toilets, which used (pre-decimalisation) to charge that sum. References to urination are commonly used in slang. Usage in English includes: Urolagnia is an inclination to obtain sexual enjoyment by looking at or thinking of urine or urination. As a paraphilia, urine may be consumed, or the person may bathe in it. Drinking urine is known as urophagia, though uraphagia"
"Sleepwalking scene The sleepwalking scene is a critically celebrated scene from William Shakespeare's tragedy ""Macbeth"" (1606). The first scene in the tragedy's 5th act, the sleepwalking scene is written principally in prose, and follows the guilt-wracked, sleepwalking Lady Macbeth as she recollects horrific images and impressions from her past. The scene is Lady Macbeth's last on-stage appearance, though her death is reported later in the act. Well known phrases from the scene include ""Out, damned spot!"" and ""All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."" The British tragedienne Sarah Siddons (1755 - 1831) was distinguished for her"
"Cliveden. She was noted for exchanges with Winston Churchill, though these are not well documented. Churchill is supposed to have told Lady Astor that having a woman in Parliament was like having one intrude on him in the bathroom, to which she retorted, ""You're not handsome enough to have such fears."" Lady Astor is also said to have responded to a question from Churchill about what disguise he should wear to a masquerade ball by saying, ""Why don't you come sober, Prime Minister?"" In another recounted exchange, Lady Astor said to Churchill, ""If you were my husband, I'd poison your"
"an uninvolved spectator to Macbeth's plotting and a nervous hostess at a banquet dominated by her husband's hallucinations. Her sleepwalking scene in the fifth act is a turning point in the play, and her line ""Out, damned spot!"" has become a phrase familiar to many speakers of the English language. The report of her death late in the fifth act provides the inspiration for Macbeth's ""Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow"" speech. Analysts see in the character of Lady Macbeth the conflict between femininity and masculinity as they are impressed in cultural norms. Lady Macbeth suppresses her instincts toward compassion, motherhood,"
"and basin, a soap-box, toothbrush holder, perhaps a tongue-scraper and some boxes and bowls. These started later, in the 18th-century, when men began to shave themselves, or have a servant do it, rather than requiring a quasi-medical barber surgeon specialist. In ""Mundus Muliebris"", a satire on fashionable ladies published in 1700, by Mary Evelyn, the daughter of John Evelyn (or by him, or both of them), the toilet service was described. Although by no means an insider at court, Evelyn was able to see the queen's toilet service and his diary records his admiring comments. In the poem: <poem>:A new"
"flush toilet. The close stool was sometimes called a necessary stool or a night stool. The eighteenth-century euphemism was convenience; the term was further euphemised in the nineteenth century with the term night commode, which John Gloag suggested may have derived its significance from a design for a ""balance night stool"" in Thomas Sheraton's ""Cabinet Dictionary"" (London, 1803); Sheraton's design was ""made to have the appearance of a small commode standing upon legs; when it is used the seat part presses down to a proper height by the hand, and afterwards it rises by means of lead weights, hung to"
"markers of British upper-class speech, featuring in a famous essay, ""U and non-U English"". ""Loo"" may have derived from a corruption of French ' (""water""), ' (""mind the water"", used in reference to emptying chamber pots into the street from an upper-story window), ' (""place""), ' (""place of ease"", used euphemistically for a toilet), or """" (""English place"", used from around 1770 to refer to English-style toilets installed for travelers). Other proposed etymologies include a supposed tendency to place toilets in room 100 (hence ""loo"") in English hotels, a dialectical corruption of the nautical term ""lee"" in reference to the"
"Manor in London, where she lived with her step-daughter, the 14-year-old Elizabeth. Thomas was the uncle of Elizabeth's half-brother, and the newly wed husband of her step-mother, and their family roles regarding each other were, perhaps, unclear. Now, living under the same roof as Elizabeth, Thomas became more than a little familiar, if not intimate, with Elizabeth, indulging in daily romps with her, tickling her, and slapping her on her behind as she lay in her bed, or coming into her room in his nightclothes. Her governess, Kat Ashley, thought this scandalous, and reported it to Catherine. Indignant, Thomas retorted,"
"sense of humour. This idea matches the contents of the letter to the Lord Mayor, which accused a group of young aristocrats as the culprits, after an irresponsible wager. A popular rumour circulating as early as 1840 pointed to an Irish nobleman, the Marquess of Waterford, as the main suspect. Haining suggested this may have been due to him having previously had bad experiences with women and police officers. The Marquess was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behaviour and"
"distaff; and I hope to see a housewife take thee between her legs and spin it off""; the Nurse in ""Romeo and Juliet"" says that her husband had told Juliet when she was learning to walk that ""Yea, dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit""; or is told the time by Mercutio: ""for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon""; and in ""Hamlet"", Hamlet publicly torments Ophelia with a series of sexual puns, including ""country matters"" (similar to ""cunt""). The title of Shakespeare's play ""Much Ado"
"addressing a woman is ""Madam"" or ""Ma'am"". In British English, ""lady"" is often, but not always, simply a courteous synonym for ""woman"". Public toilets are often distinguished by signs showing simply ""Ladies"" or ""Gentlemen"". ""Lady"" has a formal and respectful quality, being used to describe a woman in old age such as ""an old lady"" or when speaking about a woman to a child (e.g. ""Give the money to the lady."") It may be used, however incongruously, in descriptions such as ""the cleaning lady"" or even ""a bag lady"" (tramp). The American journalist William Allen White noted one of the"
"end of the poem, in her closing song, Pippa calls out the following: ""Twat"" both then and now is vulgar slang for a woman's external genitals. It has become a relatively mild epithet in parts of the UK, but vulgar elsewhere. When the editors of the ""Oxford English Dictionary"" enquired decades later where Browning had picked up the word, he directed them to a rhyme from 1660 that went thus: ""They talk't of his having a Cardinall's Hat/They'd send him as soon an Old Nun's Twat."" Browning apparently missed the vulgar joke and took ""twat"" to mean part of a"
"women wakes up from her unconscious state as he begins to remove her clothing. The title character attempts to warn the board of directors at the hospital of the murderer's activity. Somnophilia Somnophilia (from Latin ""somnus"" = sleep and Greek φιλία, ""-philia"" = love), also known as sleeping princess syndrome and sleeping beauty syndrome, is a paraphilia in which an individual becomes sexually aroused by someone who is unconscious. Sexology scholar John Money stated that the condition has a high degree of correlation throughout history with incest and may progress to necrophilia. ""The Dictionary of Psychology"" categorized somnophilia within the"
"prepared to take in her granddaughter Elizabeth, Lady Audley, whom she feared would be a bad influence on her younger siblings. Lord Castlehaven denied all charges and claimed his wife and son were conspiring against him. He called his wife a whore, to whose statements no value should be attached, and accused her of having given birth to an illegitimate child during their marriage. The servants who had made incriminating statements against him had done so out of spite and jealousy, he said. In the 17th century, rape and sodomy were seen as serious, morally reprehensible crimes; they were capital"
"the cities caused a rapid deterioration in levels of sanitation and the general quality of urban life. The streets became choked with filth due to the lack of waste clearance regulations. Calls for the establishment of a municipal authority with waste removal powers were mooted as early as 1751 by Corbyn Morris in London, who proposed that ""...as the preservation of the health of the people is of great importance, it is proposed that the cleaning of this city, should be put under one uniform public management, and all the filth be...conveyed by the Thames to proper distance in the"
"his stepmother Phaedra. Lewis and Short suggest that the word ""masturbārī"" may be derived from ""manū stuprārī"" ""to defile oneself with a hand"", and this is the usual view, and supported (""with some hesitation"") by J.N. Adams. Another view, however, is that it comes from *""mās"" + ""turbāre"" (""to excite the penis""), assuming an otherwise unattested meaning of ""penis"" for ""mās"" (""male""). The supporters of this view cite another word ""mascarpiōnem"" (from ""mascarpiō""), which occurs once in Latin literature in Petronius (134.5), and which appears from the context to mean ""beating the penis with a wand (to stimulate it)"". It"